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Artist Creates Traditional Chinese Landscape Paintings Using Roller Skates

Tian Haisu has an unconventional method for applying paint to a surface – she uses roller skates! The artist wears a modified pair of inline riders that are adapted to hold small pots of black pigment. Her giant works – sometimes as large as 43 feet by 20 feet – mimic traditional Chinese landscape painting. But, by making marks with skates instead of calligraphy brushes, the ancient art takes on a whole new life. Tian calls this unique process “landskating.”

The artist started painting when she was just three years old, and now she's currently a student at the California College of Art. Wearing her skates while she works make her feel at one with each piece. “My whole body is involved and I produce all kinds of ink landscapes, such creation is full of power, speed and rhythm,” she writes.

The video below shows just how she creates the large-scale paintings. Her newest one (seen above) is titled Blood-Lane-Line, and it was made with long, graceful movements back and forth on the paper. She's also seen gently touching the front of her skates to the ground and producing smaller marks that add fine details. The combination forms exquisite mountain ranges, trees, and even houses.

Tian Haisu on CCC Gallery website
via [Lost At E Minor and Oddity Central]

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met, Manager of My Modern Met Store, and co-host of the My Modern Met Top Artist Podcast. As an illustrator and writer living in Seattle, she chronicles illustration, embroidery, and beyond through her blog Brown Paper Bag and Instagram @brwnpaperbag. She wrote a book about embroidery artist Sarah K. Benning titled "Embroidered Life" that was published by Chronicle Books in 2019. Sara is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art. She earned her BFA in Illustration in 2008 and MFA in Illustration Practice in 2013.
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